On 28 July 2020, the expert discussion “Meeting the requirements of a reasonable length of judicial proceedings in the context of the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in the Svetlana Naumenko group and Merit group v. Ukraine” took place in Kyiv, Ukraine. This event was co-organised by the Supreme Court and the Council of Europe projects “Further support for the execution by Ukraine of judgments in respect of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights” (Project), which is funded by the Human Rights Trust Fund, and “Human Rights Compliant Criminal Justice System in Ukraine”.

In the course of the event judges and representatives of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, Supreme Court, High Anti-Corruption Court, other judicial institutions of Ukraine, representatives of the Ukrainian Parliament and the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, as well as representatives of the civil society and international organisations discussed the expert conclusions on the introduction of effective remedies against lengthy judicial proceedings and recommendations for the establishment of a comprehensive system of judicial data collection based on the Council of Europe standards and good practices of its member states.

When opening the event, Ms Lilit Daneghian-Bossler, Head of Justice Sector Reform Unit 1 of the Justice and Legal Co-operation Department of the Council of Europe, noted that Ukraine is expected to demonstrate a strong and firm commitment at the highest level to resolve the issue of the length of proceedings and effective remedies, which constitute a major deficiency of the justice system and the rule of law. Therefore, the Ukrainian authorities should thoroughly examine current legislative proposals and their impact on the length of court proceedings.

Mr Tigran Karapetyan, Head of Eastern Partnership and Russia Unit of the Human Rights National Implementation Division of the Council of Europe, underlined that the Council of Europe will continue to support the Supreme Court Working group tasked with developing solutions to the issues of lengthy court proceedings. He also noted that this event provided a good forum for exchanging ideas about the next steps and possible legislative proposals necessary for Ukraine to implement.

During the event, the Head of Division of the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the ECtHR – Mr Pavlo Pushkar, stressed the importance to identify and analyse the main determinants of lengthy court proceedings and then ensure effective remedies on a domestic level against the excessive length of court proceedings. If Ukraine doesn’t make any progress, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe might pass the interim resolution for the lack of effective remedies. Mr Pushkar emphasised that the execution of the ECtHR judgments in the Svetlana Naumenko and Merit group of cases remains one of the priorities and, thus, the Council of Europe will continue to provide necessary assistance to Ukraine.

International expert of the Project - Mr Adis Hodzic, delivered the presentation about the Council of Europe standards and best practices for introducing a comprehensive system of data collection aimed at measuring the length of judicial proceedings at all levels.

In addition to discussing the proposed recommendations and conclusions, the participants of the event exchanged their views on a further work strategy that Ukraine should assume in order to implement the requested domestic remedies in respect of excessively long judicial proceedings. The representatives of the state institutions also agreed to take coordinated actions to improve the legislative and regulatory framework with a purpose to fully execute the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in the Svetlana Naumenko and Merit group of cases.

WEB LINK TO THE EVENT

https://supreme.court.gov.ua/supreme/pres-centr/news/974789/